EXCLUSIVE: Michael Shannon starred as FBI negotiator Gary Noesner in Paramount Network’s 2018 series Waco and four years later he has boarded the follow up series as an executive producer.
Shannon is set as one of the exec producers, alongside creators and showrunners Drew and John Erick Dowdle, for Paramount+’s American Tragedies: Waco – The Trials (w/t).
The drama was first teased in February 2021 at Paramount’s investor day to launch its streaming service, although little was known about the project at the time.
The new series is slated to launch in 2023 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the tragic events in Texas.
Waco, which also starred Taylor Kitsch, Andrea Riseborough, Paul Sparks, Rory Culkin, Julia Garner and Melissa Benoist, explored the events in February 1993 in Mount Carmel, a small religious community when a raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) on David Koresh and his followers, known as the Branch Davidians led to a massive standoff and the death of dozens.
American Tragedies: Waco – The Trials will explore the wide-ranging fallout following these events and the uneven scales of justice the surviving Branch Davidians faced. It will also delve into how the horrific events fueled the emerging ‘Patriot’ movement, which ultimately led to the most destructive act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history – the Oklahoma City bombing.
The series is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios and production is set to kick off this week in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In addition to Shannon and John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle, Andrew Gettens and Lauren Mackenzie, who have worked on series including CBS’ Elementary and Netflix’s Hit & Run, will write and exec produce. David C. Glasser, David Hutkin, Bob Yari and Ron Burkle will exec produce for 101 Studios and Keith Cox and Lauren Ruggiero are the execs in charge of production for MTV Entertainment Studios.